80sNostalgia

Fuzzbox Interview

Fuzzbox, or to give them their proper title “We’ve got a Fuzzbox and we’re gonna use it!”, reformed recently. Two of the original members, Vix and Maggie, held auditions to find new band members to join them – a guitarist, a bassist and a drummer. They now have a new single out, Let’s Go Supernova, which is ace news for us Fuzzbox Fans!

They were on tour with The Wonderstuff recently and I, along with Mr G from Bolton FM, managed to grab a few minutes with Vix and Maggie, two of the original members from the 80s group, in Manchester.

How old were you when you first got into music?

Vix: Oh, gosh, as young as I can remember I’ve always been into music. Our family had Christmas get-togethers and they were really traditional like the Partridge family, where we would all sing together and our instruments out. I’ve always loved music and loved singing, but professionally it started when I was 15.

Is that when you all first got together?

Vix: Yeah, Maggie was 20. She’s always been the mature one of the band! In age, at least!

Maggie : Yes! Only, in fact!

Vix :So that was the first proper band we had been in.

And Maggie, did you start playing music early on as well?

Maggie : I went to piano lessons when I was 13, so I’ve done my grades. Actually, I got to grade 5.

That’s not bad, I got to grade 3 on violin!

Vix : That’s actually quite good! That’s past the screeching phase! I have done loads, like flute, trombone and guitar but ukulele is the main thing I’m OK at now, but I’ve played loads. I’ve picked them up and played them, but not really carried them through, but I always liked playing instruments. Singing has always been the main thing.

Do you remember the time when you realised you were doing what you had seen “famous people” on tv do? Did you have that moment of realisation that you were known publically?

Maggie : I think I only realised that last week, and I’m not joking, because at the time its almost not real. I felt a bit of a fraud just turning up and saying “alright” (to people,) and its only recently that I’ve really understood just how much we did.

Vix: There were little moments, like when we were on Top of the Pops, when you look back and think “Gosh, we were on Top of the Pops” but we’d still just take the mickey out of each other as though we were watching a home video. We were always quite irreverent and down to earth so it never hit us in that “Oh my god, we’re megastars” way. We were grateful but we were earthy, I suppose.

You put a link to a YouTube video online recently of you all playing on a Saturday morning show, but the backing track skips.

Maggie and Vix : GHOST TRAIN!

Vix : You weren’t allowed to sing or play live in those days, it was absolutely forbidden and we were always on Ghost Train, we got on really well with them.

Maggie : Lots of band didn’t like the fact that you had to pretend to play and it really didn’t bother us. We were all, like, yeah we’ll do it.

Vix: We were just miming along, having a great time, then suddenly it stopped and went (Vix makes a rewindy tape noise that I can’t replicate in text!) and of course we were laughing our heads off but our manager wasn’t so pleased – she certainly had words! But we didn’t really care, we thought it was hilarious and its gone down very well on YouTube over the years.

So you guys have got a new single out, could you tell us a little about “Let’s Go Supernova”?

Vix: I had the title in my head before I had the tune, and I was trying to come up with little ideas playing them on my ukulele then sending them over to Maggie so it didn’t have quite the right vibe. Then eventually I hit on the chorus “Lets go, go, go!” and I thought “That’s it!” That’s Fuzzbox, that sounds right, and we worked on it from there. That’s the first of a lot more. We will have another single out in April and more material still coming. We’re just trying to fit it all in.

Will you be playing any of the Rewind festivals or the Lets Rock festivals this year? What’s in the pipeline for Fuzzbox?

Vix: Well its strange because people keep saying “I hear you’re playing Rewind” or “Lets Rock” and I say “Are we? That’s brilliant!” If it says we’ll be there, we’ll be there! At the moment it’s different offers and different dates coming in, and I think once this tours done we’ll have a bit more time to sit and see – rather than just taking random things we’ll get a plan of action, whether it will be a tour or one-off gigs we don’t quite know yet but I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t end up doing more with The Wonderstuff and Bentley Rhythm Ace.

Thanks to Graeme from Bolton FM for allowing me to borrow some of his questions too! Check out the video for Lets Go Supernova below!